1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fluid ejecting apparatus, such as an ink jet type printer, and to a fluid ejecting head for a fluid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
In general, as a fluid ejecting apparatus that ejects a fluid onto a target, an ink jet type printer (hereinafter, referred to as ‘printer’) is widely known. In such a printer, ink is supplied to a recording head (fluid ejecting head) that ejects ink (fluid), and ink is ejected from nozzle openings in the recording head onto a recording paper as the target for printing (for example, JP-A-2003-291370).
A recording head for the printer described in JP-A-2003-291370 includes a plurality of nozzle openings, a plurality of pressure generating chambers (pressure chamber) that correspondingly communicate with the nozzle openings, a single ink chamber (fluid storage chamber) that communicates with the pressure generating chambers through a plurality of ink supply paths (fluid supply path), respectively, an ink supply port (fluid supply port) that supplies ink to the ink chambers, and a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators (driving element) that are correspondingly mounted on vibrating plates, which form parts of the pressure generating chambers, respectively. With this configuration, if a driving voltage is applied to the piezoelectric vibrator to expand and contract the piezoelectric vibrator, the pressure in the pressure generating chamber changes, and ink in the pressure generating chamber is ejected from the nozzle openings by the change in pressure.
In the recording head for the printer described in JP-A-2003-291370, ink that is supplied from the ink supply port to the corresponding ink chamber is likely to suffer from stagnation at a position in the ink chamber distant from the ink supply port rather than a position close to the ink supply port. For this reason, at the position in the ink chamber distant from the ink supply port, ink may be thickened or air bubbles may be collected. Accordingly, in the printer described in JP-A-2003-291370, when cleaning is performed to suck thickened ink or air bubbles from the nozzle openings and discharge thickened ink or air bubbles, the driving frequency of a piezoelectric vibrator that is close to the ink supply port is set to be larger than that of a piezoelectric vibrator that is distant from the ink supply port, such that thickened ink or air bubbles in the ink chamber are effectively discharged.
In the printer described in JP-A-2003-291370, according to the relative position of the piezoelectric vibrator to the ink supply port, the driving pattern for driving the piezoelectric vibrator is changed for every piezoelectric vibrator. Accordingly, a plurality of driving patterns are needed to drive the piezoelectric vibrators, which results in complicating the circuit configuration.